- Simon Harris to become youngest taoiseach in Ireland’s history
- Harris’s political career began at 16, fast-tracked through ranks
- Advocated for autism awareness, prioritized politics over college degree
Not only will Simon Harris succeed Leo Varadkar as taoiseach, but he will also do so as the youngest leader of the Republic of Ireland in its history.
He is one year younger than Mr. Varadkar was when he began working in 2017 at the age of 37.
Although Simon Harris rose to prominence in Irish politics very quickly, he did so very early on.
The native of County Wicklow convened his initial political gathering at the tender age of sixteen.
Additionally, his haste to begin a political career caused him to graduate from college without completing his degree.
“I acknowledge that my career has been somewhat peculiar in many respects,” Mr. Harris told Hot Press magazine in 2022.
At age 22, I was a county councillor. At the age of 24, I was a TD (member of the Irish Parliament).
At age 27, I was an associate minister. At age 29, I was the health minister.
Life proceeded considerably more rapidly than I had anticipated.
Mr Harris was sworn in as the leader of the Fine Gael as the sole candidate for the position; he is now on track to become taoiseach in the wake of Mr Varadkar’s unexpected resignation on Wednesday.
Mr. Harris was born in 1986 and raised in Greystones, County Wicklow, a coastal community.
He is the eldest of three children and the son of a special needs assistant and minicab driver.
The fact that his 16-year-old younger sibling Adam is autistic, according to Mr Harris, prompted him to become politically active himself.
He told Hotpress, “As that irritable, opinionated teenager, I was extremely frustrated with the lack of information regarding autism.”
Upon observing the strain and anxiety that my parents endured, I convened a public forum in my place of origin.
The adolescent extended an invitation to families of individuals with autism to a social gathering at the parish hall in his neighbourhood.
There were approximately sixty attendees at the event, which led to the formation of a new advocacy and support group for autism.
Mr. Harris attended St David’s Holy Faith Secondary School in Greystones during his youth prior to enrolling at Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) to pursue a degree in journalism and French.
In spite of this, the prospective minister for further and higher education ceased his collegiate pursuits in the penultimate year of his four-year degree programme.
Prioritising a position as a parliamentary assistant to Fine Gael Senator Frances Fitzgerald over his studies, he entered elected politics shortly after that.
He was elected to the Wicklow County Council in 2009, receiving the most votes of any candidate in the county.
In 2011, when Fine Gael surged to power as the coalition government’s leader, Mr Harris was elected to represent the party in Wicklow.
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He was referred to as “the baby of the House” at the age of 24 because he was the youngest member of the 31st Dáil (Irish parliament).
He assumed the challenging yet prestigious position of health minister in 2016—his first ministerial position.
He wed his longtime fiancée, paediatric cardiac nurse Caoimhe Wade, the subsequent summer.
Adam, his sibling, served as the ceremony’s best man.
Mr Harris currently has two offspring of his own.
In the year 2018, he intervened in the legal matter concerning a Dublin-born ninth-grade pupil who was at risk of deportation to China.
Despite never having left Ireland, Eric Zhi Ying Xue was ineligible for Irish citizenship as a result of a 2004 legislative amendment.
“He calls this home.” His nation is as follows. “I sincerely hope that common sense will win out.”
